Thursday, November 03, 2011

'Mostly Peaceful' Occupy Oakland Temper Tantrum Turns Violent

As many as 40 people were arrested in downtown Oakland early Thursday after what was mostly a peaceful day during the general strike Wednesday turned heated.

Late in the evening, protesters temporarily took over a vacant building, started fires in downtown and used homemade bomb launchers to fire M80s at police.

At 1 a.m. police had used tear-gas and flashbang grenades in attempts to clear the crowd from downtown streets. Some protesters tried to calm the situation by chanting "Don't throw (crap)" and yelling "Stand still the world is watching" but others continued to stand off with police and refused to leave despite police calling an "unlawful assembly" at midnight.

Shortly after 1:30 a.m. police were ready to move in on the Occupy Oakland camp at Frank H. Ogawa Plaza and announced that arrests would be made. At least 100 tents are housing hundreds of people there.

Interim Police Chief Howard Jordan said there are about 70 people "determined to cause trouble and instigate a confrontation with police." They plan to release their photos at some point. Jordan said officers intended to separate the troublemakers from the rest of the campers. He said around 2 a.m. that between 30 and 40 had been arrested, although he could not confirm the exact number.

They may have been some of the same vandals who trashed Whole Foods on Wednesday.

Homemade bomb launchers. Probably the only thing these cretins have ever manufactured in their miserable lives.

Verum Serum has some rather disturbing photos for this "mostly peaceful" gathering, including this:

I wonder where that kid will attend preschool if the city burns?

"To me this is all (baloney)," said Sam, who declined to give his last name, but said he is a hauler for NevCal Trucking out of Reno and picked up a container at PortsAmerica terminal Wednesday afternoon. When he tried to leave, the exit gate manned by U.S. Customs and Border Protection had closed early because of the impending protest.

"These people are out here trying to make a living. I get paid per run, I don't get paid by the hour,'' he said. "My personal opinion? The 1 percent down here is protesting, the 99 percent is down here working."

Meanwhile, an expensive imported automobile struck a protester, with predictable results. Obviously only the 1% drives a Mercedes and that's just not fair to the 99%.

A car struck two Occupy Oakland protesters tonight as they marched with a crowd along Broadway, and an angry mob surrounded the car as emergency workers tended to the injured.

The driver, who was not identified, sat in his silver Mercedes-Benz sedan after the 7:30 p.m. incident while hundreds of people screamed at him through his closed windows.

That may be the first time we've seen the angry mob properly described by the media. I thought that characterization was reserved only for tea partiers.